Kudos to Carmany

Sandy Carmany, the Greensboro City Council’s District 5 representative, is in many ways a sterling example of a modern day councilmember. As the wife of a retired Greensboro police officer and a sitting representative for 15 years she is eminently electable and she understands the machinations of civic government on an instinctual level.

Around the YES! Weekly newsroom we call her ‘“Cash Money,’” and not just because it’s a natural take on her last name. Carmany is money because she gets the votes; she goes to the meetings; she understands the issues. And though she’s keeping relatively mum on the dirty details of the current police scandal, we believe she has a strong commitment to transparency in local government ‘— she has been maintaining her blog, Sandy’s Place (sandycarmany.blogspot.com) since March 2005 and on it she gives detailed missives about what she actually does in the name of her constituents and shares her thoughts about current issues affecting the city, its people and our future, the police scandal notwithstanding.

And though she’s not, as they say, ‘“all about the Benjys,’” our girl Cash Money does keep her eye on the bottom line. To wit: a recent blog post in which she disclosed a request from Downtown Greensboro, Inc. for three things they deem necessary for ‘“the continued revitalization of downtown’”: more cops; city stewardship of the ‘“no man’s land’” on Washington Street between Elm and Greene; and the formation of a task force to review downtown development. She says that all three make sense and deserve to be discussed. But, she asks, ‘“Why do I see big dollar signs flashing before my eyes?’”

We’re down with the idea of more cops ‘— as the city matures and grows it’s important to make sure our police force is able to do its job effectively. And we’re cool with the city doing something about the eyesore on Washington Street, as we believe aesthetics to be a quality-of-life barometer.

But we’re going to need some convincing about the task force.

Don’t get us wrong: we’ve seen some amazing things happen downtown in the last few years and DGI has been at the vanguard of the revival. And we know that task forces have been one of the vehicles that has gotten things going down there. But we wonder, quite frankly, just how many task forces we need at this stage of the game. Isn’t Action Greensboro a task force (or, more precisely, a compendium of task forces)? Is it possible that we can lay off the task forcing thing just a bit for now?

We, too, see dollar signs in our eyes, Cash Money. And we’re looking to you to keep your mind on our money and our money on your mind.